Taking the Greeting Card Industry by Storm

I've been to two adoption showers in one week.

Two.

How cool is that?

Two different kids have walked/are going to walk into their forever homes this week.

Beyond cool. Amazing. Incredible. There are really no good words for it.

Guess what? There are really no good cards for it either.

I decided this in the middle of Target, whereupon I had an illogical fit of anger against the greeting card industry. Like a "mutter under your breath about the unfairness of it all" kind of tirade. An "I'm gonna write my congressman except that it's not a congressional issue" kind of seething. It was not pretty.

So, I made my own for my dear friend, Heather. I kinda liked it, so I made another one for her new son, Marcus. They made my "non-crier" friends well up as if they were... well, as if they were me -- the crybaby. I think that's a total "in yo' face, Hallmark". Anyway, here are some pics I took of the cards. They took a while to make, so I wanted to have some proof of my work.



I employ collage poetry in much of my crafting attempts. I think it's so interesting and quite a challenge. It took 5 old magazines and about 15 minutes of thumbing through and cutting out. But about 90 minutes of arranging and re-arranging. I love the revision process. It's like looking at a painting from far away. Or with one eye closed. Or while standing on your head. Every arrangement of words speaks a new language.

Anyway, I love making cards, but I'd have to charge hundreds of dollars for each one just to cover my magazine and glue stick supply.



This is the card for Marcus. I don't know if you can really see it clearly, but the whole idea of it was that I came across the word "spinach" in a magazine. As Heather is a vegetarian and loovvvesss spinach (and most 4 year-olds are not quite as big of fans), I thought I'd make him a card to warn him that although she loves the spinach and will try to feed it to him relentlessly, she's still going to be the greatest mom ever.

The smiling dog on the back of the card was just because. Well... and because it was about 2 AM at that point, and I was feeling a little punchy.

Here's the other highlight of the shower. Our friend, Toni the Baby Hog, met Baby Brooklyn for the first time. I don't know that they liked each other much. Can you tell?



And after the shower? Heather jumped in the car to go meet her son. Her. Son. She emailed us about an hour ago. There were pictures. And bubbles. And a plea to get in the car to go "home". Like to his forever home.

And there were smiles. Oh dear, were there ever smiles. Smiles bigger than any I've ever seen in 15 years of friendship. They simply stole my breath away.

Do your friends steal your breath away? On a weekly basis? Or is that just how lucky I am?

No?

You should get new friends.

And make them a card. They really love homemade cards.